Florence

Florence-Penrose school board to zero-in on priority fixes

The stadium's shifting has kept the Florence Huskies football team from playing on the field for the last several years. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

A crack under the carpet in an upstairs room where some Huskies teams watch game film. (Brandon Hopper / Daily Record)

Florence — Finally for Florence High School, there is light in the distance, and it's not coming through the cracks of the high school's walls.

The Florence-Penrose School District has settled out of court for repairs at FHS. Superintendent Rhonda Vendetti isn't allowed to disclose the amount yet, but it is less than the $9 million the district had planned to sue for.

The money will cover the cost of the recommended repairs, though. The $9 million figure was enough to get the school back to it's original pristine condition, she said.

District officials have met with the engineers and heard the presentation about which fixes need to be priorities for the board. Vendetti said that decision likely will be made sometime before the Aug. 12 board meeting. The board will meet Monday, but it's unlikely that anything will be decided at that meeting.

"There are no safety or health concerns and even the structural repairs that are being recommended by the engineers are not health and safety concerns at this time," the superintendent said. "It's just that over the course of the next several years with any continued movement at all, it could become more of an issue."

A target date for the prioritized recommended repairs to be done is the spring of 2014. She said the engineer who they met with felt that was a reasonable goal.

If fixing the stands at the football stadium is put on the priority list, which Vendetti thinks that it will be, the Huskies could resume playing games at their school in the fall of 2014. The past two season, the Huskies have played at Palmer Field at Fremont Middle School because the massive shifting in the concrete stands.

Advertisement

Other items to be considered for the prioritized list will be the commons area, the corridor on the north side by the welding room and in the basement near the heating and air conditioning units.

"We're actually looking at starting some of the repairs before school starts," she said. "We're looking at maybe a couple of the minor repairs in August."

There's no guarantee that even after the fixes are made that the school won't receive more cracks, but the movement in soil has slowed way down over the years.

"What we're hopeful is that ... whatever repairs we make will accommodate the movement from here on out. ... The repairs are engineered to allow for some of that without us having some of the huge structural issues," Vendetti said.

The problems at Florence High School began shortly after the school was built in 2006 when cracks appeared in several places, including the track at the football stadium and a significant shift in the commons area.

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A West Texas man has been charged with impersonating an officer by using sirens and flashing lights to skip to the head of the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant. Full Story